No abstract

Observations of children’s spacing behaviour were made during nursery school introduction and after integration into the group. Children showed rapid adjustment of interpersonal proximity within a few days at the same time as the group’s initial high interest in them waned. Newcomers had settled into stable, normal spacing patterns by the time of the follow-up observations after 30 + days of nursery experience. Several factors such as presence of older sibling, weekday of introduction, and sex of newcomer were examined, and parallels with similar nonhuman primate studies were considered.

A disorder of auditory integration associated with a language disability was identified and treated in a young adult male committed to a mental hospital with a history of mental retardation and lack of judgment. Psychiatric tests demonstrated no sign of mental or emotional illness. Physical and neurological findings were normal, and psychological tests indicated retardation and intellectual regression with no complicating emotional overlay. Treatment by amplification to one ear and later by occlusion of the other ear permitted normal discrimination and effective speech and language therapy. A case study describes the diagnostic and treatment procedures, the subject’s increase in receptive and expressive language skills, and the parallel growth in social competence that permitted his successful return to society. Significant associated symptoms observed are being studied in other individuals with a similar disorder.